Richard's Best Of Year CD 2009

Every year, since 2004, I've done an annual Best Of Year CD. Not what was best in the stuff released in the year, but a selection of what I had the most enjoyment from during the year. It may be new stuff, it may be old songs that I know and love or it could just be something from the past that I've just discovered.
This year:

Sesame Street / Oscar The Grouch: I Hate Christmas
Mumford & Sons: Sigh No More
Carter USM: After The Watershed
The Dresden Dolls: Dear Jenny
La Roux: Bulletproof
Depeche Mode: The Meaning Of Love (Fairly Odd Mix)
Little Boots: New In Town
The Clash: Guns Of Brixton
The Good, The Bad & The Queen: The Good, The Bad & The Queen
Billy Bragg & The Young Coppers (with Eliza Carthy & Simon Emmerson): Hard Times Of England Retold
The Wonderstuff: Inertia
Roxy Music: Out Of The Blue
Lily Allen: Everyone’s At It
Leonard Cohen: ‘Aint No Cure For Love
Sheila Chandra & John Cooper: ‘Ouses, ‘Ouses, ‘Ouses
The Gloworms/Tiger Moth: Kit Whites/Sloe On The Uptake

And it seems I didn't do a blog pot for the 2008 best of year cd. How crap am I?

Amanda Palmer: Astronaut
Solange: I Decided (Part II)
Jonathan Rice: We're All Stuck Out In The Desert
The Long Blondes: Century
Roxy Music: Pyjamarama
Ladytron: Ghosts
Duran Duran: The Valley
Crystal Castles: Alice Practice
Bellowhead: Rambling Sailor
Lloyd Cole & The Commotions: Rattlesnakes
The Waterboys: Some Of My Best Friends Are Trains
The Supremes: The Happening
Dresden Dolls: Girl Anachronism
Santagold: L.E.S. Artistes
Scritti Politti: Absolute
Elbow: On A Day Like This
Tom Waits: Silent Night (Christmas Card From Hooker In Minneapolis)

PROPAGANDA Reviews: Logicomix - The Best Of The Year

Logicomix

Concept & Story by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos H. Papadimitriou. Art by Alecos Papadatos.

Bloomsbury

“What Is Logic? ….. My way of telling you the story of Logic will be through the tale of one of it’s most ardent fans. Myself!” – Betrand Russell from the pages of Logicomix.

Here’s a comic you wouldn’t have seen a few years ago – a detailed study of Betrand Russell’s life and his work; of mathematics, of logic, of philosophy and, like it says right there on the cover; an epic search for truth. There really is no simple way of defining Logicomix, except by virtue of it’s absolute brilliance. Logicomix is unquestionably my book of the year, but, just as Betrand Russell ultimately considered his life’s work rather a failure (as any attempt to create a universal truth in mathematics or science would be), I’m not entirely happy with my words here. Simply because I rather lack the words to describe to you exactly how good Logicomix is.

Logicomix tells the story of Bertrand Russell’s life. A giant in the fields of Mathematics, Logic and Philosophy, he was a truly radical and incredibly important thinker whose works attempting to establish a universal, fundamental foundation for mathematics have influenced many of the world’s greatest minds since then.

(Foundations that Russell would spend a lifetime first tearing down and then attempting to rebuild. From Logicomix. Published by Bloomsbury.)

Russell’s search for a new, absolute truth in mathematics and logic as detailed in Logicomix encompasses most of the legendary figures in the field; Gottlob Frege, David Hilbert, and Kurt Gödel, and perhaps most importantly his impassioned student; Ludwig Wittgenstein, who would later destroy much of Russell’s work through his own ideas on Mathematics. But, as the authors mention, it’s Russell’s pioneering work that allows these incredible thinkers, Wittgenstein included, to move mathematics and logic forwards. The story may have it’s roots in the movements of the time, but a lot of the narrative, the required meeting of minds, as freely admitted by the authors in the afterword, is a result of a process of simplification, reduction and outright invention. This reworking of historical reality into the spellbinding narrative within the pages of Logicomix is fitting, forming a new historical reality in much the same way as Russell et al were concerned with creating a new reality for the fundamental principles of the world they lived in.

But whilst a graphic novel on the subject of complex mathematical and logical ideas may sound a little dry, Logicomix is anything but. The ideas Russell was trying to expound are incredibly dense, hugely technical and amazingly complex mathematical ones (famously Russell and Whitehead took an incredible 362 pages, 15 more than in this graphic novel, to prove that 1 + 1 = 2). But never in Logicomix do the authors allow these incredibly complex ideas to get too far beyond the reader’s grasp.

(A moment that Russell himself describes as – “Think of that: 362 pages to prove what every child knows”. A small glimpse into the obsessive nature of the field. From Logicomix. Published by Bloomsbury.)

To keep us readers up to speed and involved the authors don’t simply tell a tale of mathematics and logical thought, instead they use not one, but two simple framing devices to make the work accessible. The first is Russell himself, delivering a talk in America during 1939, as the debate on whether to enter the second World War or continue an isolationist policy rages. This philosophical debate on the question of entering the war is a perfect backdrop to allow Russell to tell a tale of his life and the complicated ideas of mathematics, logical thinking and philosophy that would become an obsession, defining his life and tormenting his every moment. The nature of his talk, spinning out biographical facts, philosophical questions and a detailed look at mathematics and logic along the way is laid out as a parable for the audience, both in Russell’s lecture and the audience reading this graphic novel.

The second framing device occurs between the chapters of Russell’s life, when the entire narrative is suspended and the creators of the graphic novel appear as themselves, discussing the work in progress. It’s a simple but marvellously effective way to break up a complex and difficult story, allowing the readers to catch their breath, absorb all they’ve read before and be gently guided by the creators of the story. It’s also functions as a simple method to incorporate the essentially self-referential nature of much of mathematics – by including themselves in their work, discussing the work in progress, the authors are as self-referential as much of Russell’s own work, including his ground-breaking (and Logician breaking at the time of it’s publication) Russell’s Paradox – here beautifully illustrated with Russell’s own parable of the Barber….

(And who will shave the barber? The essentials of Russell’s Paradox laid out beautifully simply. Such complex ideas, so easily explained. From Logicomix. Published by Bloomsbury.)

Of course, Russell’s ultimate goal, to create an absolute fundamental foundation for mathematics and logic, was forever to be an elusive, obsessive dream. The authors perfectly create the incredible sense of yearning in Russell’s life for this impossible goal, something that overwhelmed everything; his marriages, his children, his very sanity – all would come second to this impossible dream. And it’s all beautifully, evocatively detailed in the pages of Logicomix.

But any graphic novel depends not only on the creativity and insight of it’s writers, but on the skill and technique of it’s artist. And here, the art team of Papadatos, and his colourist Di Donna, inkers Karatzaferis & Paraskevas and even visual researcher and letterer Bardy prove more than equal to the arduous task of visualising the momentous events of the work and making it a seamless, visual delight throughout. It’s never a chore to look at these pages of talking heads, the stylistic touches throughout, the beautiful compositions of both panels and pages, the architecture, the body language and expressions of the characters, is all so well done that the work just flows, effortlessly, allowing the absorption of the ideas of the piece to happen naturally and is as far from an arduous treatise on higher mathematics as you could possibly imagine.

Throughout the graphic novel, with the talking heads doing the explaining, I was reminded of Scott McCloud delivering his treatises on comics in Understanding Comics and it’s sequels. Interestingly there are even a few direct comparisons between Logistics and McCloud’s theories on comics; specifically in Wittgenstein’s “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus” and it’s dealing of modelling the world with representation and language. But was it McCloud who was influenced by Wittgenstein or was it the creators of Logicomix who were influenced by McCloud’s arguments and visuals? Either way it’s all fascinating stuff.

(The transition from reality through to modelling by language and the parallels between Logicomix analysis of Witgenstein’s work in mathematics and McCloud’s pictorial vocabulary. Influences? But who influences who?)

Logicomix is one of those books that comes along every few years and completely changes the way I look at things. I’ve always been a science geek, loving the ideas of theoretical physics/pop science since I was at school. But Logicomix has now opened up an entire new realm to me, of mathematics, logical thinking and philosophy. And it’s done it in a thoroughly entertaining and concise graphic novel that ranks as one of the best stories I’ve read for many a year.

With something this incredibly complex, original and utterly wonderful, I can only implore you to give it a try. Logicomix is my book of the year, but it’s one that seems to have slipped under a lot of people’s radar. Please, please, I implore you, don’t let it slip under yours.

So this is Christmas.....

No, actually, this is just the annual moment when Richard lays out Molly's presents by the tree and worries that there isn't enough. Then I slap myself around a bit and realise that:
1. Of course there's enough.
2. christmas is more about the entire festive season, the fun, the goodwill - and we've had all that already.

But anyway, in somewhat of a tradition, this is the scene as I wonder whether it's time to head to bed or not...... just the stocking run to do now.

Merry Christmas

Merry, Merry Christmas one and all. As I type this I'm still waiting for someone to go to sleep. Then I have to wait at least an hour or so before it's safe to venture into her room, grab the stocking, fill it up and replace it.
A few years ago we had an absolute disaster when madam woke up halfway through and sleepily wondered whether he'd been or not. Faster than I could think I covered perfectly, emptied the stocking again, stuck it on the bedpost and just about got away with it - thank god she was half asleep.

So now I sit. And I wait.

Christmas In Bruton Mansions

All is ready, the Molly is very, very, very excited. Right now she may or may not believe, but whether she does or not she's certainly not giving it away.

She carefully prepared her plates for Santa and Rudolph; home-made cookies, mince pie, carrot, bowl of water and something refreshing yet non-alcoholic for Santa. Her Christmas list carefully left out - we covered most of it, but she still managed to surprise us with a few last minute additions - but they'll be forgotten come the morning.

Then upstairs for the annual message to Santa on the board. This year Santa is somehow expected to carefully drop off her stocking gifts and write some sort of message as well!!! Oh, the pressure.

Merry Christmas

Mummy's Christmas Present.........

Every year Molly and I try to come up with something lovely for Louise for her birthday. Last year's photo montage was a high point (and a bloody expensive high point as well!) so this year we resorted to the old favourite of making cute stuff......

Marzipan letters, icing sugar, marshmallows and writing icing......


Step 1 - decorate box to hold them all in


Step 2 - lots of icing sugar, lots of cutting up marzipan


Step 3 - the work in progress


Step 4 - marshmallows and icing


Step 5 - et voila

I think that should have the desired effect on Christmas morning.

Pocklinton pictures - snow, snow, snow

More Pocklington pictures, snowy ones.....




(All Saint's Church)


(Our new library, in theory opening sometime late 2010)


(Snowy main street)


(Pocklington School)


(Pocklington Beck, just up from West Green)


(West Green, preferred snowman building ground for family Bruton)

Fun in the snow ....

It's been snowing a little here in Pocklington........


(There's a devilish look in her eye, a snowball in her hands. Sometime in the next minute I became nothing more than a target)



(It's a snow bear)




(Someone thought it would be funny to drop the big snowball onto her head)

Bruton mansions advent celebrations.....

Heavens, forgot to blog this one at the time (oh, my busy life). Just like every year since Molly was old enough to really enjoy Christmas, we got the tree out, put the Christmas music on and brought out all of the old favourites from years gone by. Granted, due to Molly having guides on the 1st December we brought the whole thing forward to the 30th November.

But we also had the ongoing problem of how to surprise Molly with the advent present. This comes from when she was very young and we were living in Birmingham. Every year, on the 1st Santa would make a flying visit to our house, leaving a present on the steps.

In Birmingham, this was easy. She was younger and more easy to fool back then and my office was on the ground floor. So all we had to do was put a gift bag on the front steps, ring the bell and then I jumped back into the office. She'd toddle out, encouraged and helped by Louise, open the door and be amazed and ecstatic year after year.

Then we came to Pocklington. The office was upstairs and Molly was a little more canny at this point. It meant I had to dash through the garage, out the front, knock the door and dash back before Molly noticed I'd gone. This sort of worked until Molly caught a glimpse of me one year. Not good. So the next step was to lean out the upstairs window and lower her present down onto the step - yes, I really did that for Christmas 2008 - see here.

This year I decided to risk the garage route again, carefully positioning the car and planning exactly how I'd do the run. And thankfully it worked. Molly got a present from Santa, I sneaked in and out of the house without detection and she was very puzzled about how it had happened. Which is just one more bit of evidence that she's not as convinced about this whole Santa thing as she used to be. Oh the joys of having Molly grow up.

Christmas Time, holidays are here....... plans, work, play, rest. But mostly work.

Last day at school for Molly and I today, complete with added snow. Lots of it.

She walked to school through the snow, I took 40 minutes to drive the 10 minute journey to work. But at least it was pretty. Slow, but pretty. A fairly uneventful day for both of us, full of all the fun of Christmas in schools, lots of fun outside in the snow for her, a morning spent finishing off things until 2010 for me. And all soundtracked today by Thea Gilmore's Christmas album; Strange Communion. Very nice indeed.

Plan for holiday: not a lot really. Off to see Nativity next week. One day sorting out a lovely present to Louise from Molly. Then it's Christmas and the world stops for a little while. This may well be Molly's last genuine Christmas as a believing child. But more on that nearer the day

Except it's not quite that easy. I'm way, way behind on writing reviews for the FPI blog at the moment. To be honest I'm hoping very few comics and books come in over the next few weeks. I've got 25 books on the review shelf and I really want to get them all done before the next SFX review deadline on jan 25th. Easy? Not exactly. But I shall try.

The Woodentops - in someone's front room

My very first house concert. I'd heard about the concept of house concerts before, but never in the UK. The concept is simple; an artist is invited to play someone's front room, a small charge is made, all the money goes to the artist, and in return the audience get to experience a very intimate concert.

But even knowing this, as I made my way to the village of XXXXXXXXX (I could tell you, but then you'd want to come along as well) the other night, I was still expecting to turn up to a rather big house, maybe so with some kind of barn conversion mini venue out the back to see The Woodentops.

Nope, nothing of the sort. It's a tiny village, in complete darkness and I walked tentatively along a narrow path desperately trying to work out which of the picture postcard cottages was the venue for the gig. Thankfully they had the lights on and a small crowd of people in the front garden having a pre-gig fag. Inside it was lovely, totally bizarre, but lovely. In I went, straight into someone's front room and into their kitchen/diner. Sure, it was a big kitchen/diner but not ridiculously so. The guitars and sound desk were in the far corner, the crowd of about 40 of us seated around the room, or perched where we could; the stairs, behind the kitchen island or leaning on the oven.

And what a gig it was. The Woodentops were a band I was introduced to in the late 80s at school. The albums Giant and Wooden Foot Cops On The Highway have been favourites ever since. But I've never seen them live. And okay, technically, after Saturday night, I still haveen't seen The Woodentops live, since it was only lead singer/guitarist/songwriter Rolo McGinty and bassist Mal playing live. But bloody hell, there really was no way they could have fitted a full 5 piece in the room anyway.

But even though it was only a 2 piiece and advertised as an accoustic gig, Rolo still did his very best to do severe damage to the eardrums in the room, working his guitar into a noisy, beautiful frenzy of feedback and noise in the tiny room. They did some of the hits, they did some new stuff, they did some bloody weird stuff. Bathosphere - what felt like 15 minutes of ambient noise and feedback as Rolo took us on a journey down to the Marianas trench in a bathosphere - and if that sounds bizarre and rubbish to you, that's only because you weren't there. I was leaning against a door, eyes closed and I just completely relaxed - bliss.

It was a wonderful gig, the hosts were lovely, the venue was intimate and comfortable. But there was one fly in the ointment; the knob who turned up drunk and proceeded to act like he was at a gig in a few thousand seat venue. Because the last thing you want in a room of 40 people and a band playing an intimate gig is some dick singing along at the top of his voice. Yes, we know you're a fan, you've pointed it out loudly to the singer between every song so far - no please, please, PLEASE shut up. Obviously, being polite folks, it took a few songs before anyone did anything - that is, if you call tutting loudly doing something. But eventually even this polite, quiet crowd spoke up and every time he opened his drunk mouth he got a resounding "Please shut up" (always a please - so polite). This worked for a song or so, but the bloke was so stupidly drunk that it wasn't long before he started again.

But aside from that minor flaw, it was something I'd definitely do again, and I'd say find your own house concerts near you - they're a great new experience.

today was a good day.....

(to quote Ice Cube) Yep, today was a very good day.

Work consisted of teaching the foundation stage the joy of computers via the medium of fun christmas websites, helping year 6 finish off their posters for the forthcoming christmas fayre and finally putting away the two machines that I'd been fixing for the last two weeks.

Then home. Molly's out at guides tomorrow night so our traditional 1st December activities of putting the Christmas tree up was brought forward a day. Happy Molly got to decorate the tree whilst mummy and daddy sat back and offered advice and support when it started to look (to be honest) a little pants. But the end result is wonderful and is sitting there looking all gorgeous and christmassy across the room from me now.
It really is starting to look a lot like Christmas.

Then night-time; Molly to bed, happy after her first christmas story of the year. Me off to the computer and finishing a great review, making it 30 reviews in 30 days, the first time I've ever managed a review a day. A stupid sense of satisfaction is mine tonight.
And finally, rather early for me, I get to settle down with a drink and a comic watching Stuart Lee, and smiling a very contented smile.

Yes, today was a good day. (and just like Ice Cube I had absolutely no reason to use my A.K.)